Wednesday, June 19, 2013

We Can and WILL Change The World!

As noted in yesterday's story by Stewart, it can be very frustrating when the people around us don't seem to care about the animals. This can be distressing, even disheartening.

But as we've documented before, two different surveys (1, 2) indicate that almost exactly half the country is already questioning whether they should eat animals, and are open to considering veg eating!

Will grow up in a different world than we did!

Our Pal Paul sent along this recent blog post which reinforces this: A professor at Southern Methodist University quizzed her non-vegan students and colleagues, asking why they weren't vegan. The utterly amazing take away is that two thirds of them thought they should be vegan!

Of course, this isn't the general public, but it is the upcoming generation, which is one of the reasons VO focuses on college outreach. And not only do they know what "vegan" is, they think they should be vegan!

Just let that sink in....

The reason they aren't vegan now is because they perceive it as too hard. This is where we come in. As we spelled out six years ago (just as the consumption of meat and the number of animals killed started to decline):

"As we continue our efforts [which are both effective and efficient], more vegetarian products arrive on the market every month. Having convenient vegetarian options available is vital, as it makes it easier for new people to try and stick with a compassionate diet. As more people sample faux-meats and other vegetarian products, competition will continue to increase the supply and varieties, improving quality and driving down prices. This cycle of increasing numbers of vegetarians and the increasing convenience of vegetarian eating is self-reinforcing....

"At the same time, powerful economic forces will kick in because ... it is more efficient to eat plant foods directly, rather than feeding plant foods to animals and then eating the animals’ flesh.... The faster the growth in people eating vegetarian, the faster vegetarian meats will improve in taste, become cheaper, and be found in far more places.

"Our challenge now is to expand the vegetarian market by explaining to more meat eaters the reasons for choosing vegetarian meals, while exposing them to new – though similar – products. The more rapidly we do this, the sooner cruelty-free eating will be widespread.

"With our efforts, de facto animal liberation could be achieved with a whimper, not a bang. Change will not come by revolution, but through person-by-person outreach progressing hand-in-hand with advances in technology, leading slowly but inexorably to a new norm that, to most people, hardly seems different. But an unfathomable amount of suffering will be prevented.